Tuesday, February 25, 2014

I'm so excited-- the fabulous, fun new adult anthology that I'm a part of with J. Lynn, Molly McAdams, Julie Cross and a bunch of other people just went on sale-- so if you have time, go check it out at Amazon, Barnes and Noble or Kobo!!!! To celebrate, I'm putting up a short excerpt from Grind, the short story I wrote for it :) Hope you like it!

Blurb:You always remember your first time...

Whether
it's the couple who decides not to go through with it, the two boys who
finally aren't ashamed, the newlyweds whose wedding night could very
well be their last night together, the deaf pair who have no choice but
to take body language to a new level--or, of course, the two young
lovers fumbling and laughing, getting everything wrong. These are the
memories that will never fade.

Join nineteen
fantastic authors as they pull back the curtain and give you a peek
inside that one intense moment in their characters' lives when
everything changes and nothing will ever be the same again.

Featuring
stories from some of the hottest names in New Adult, Young Adult, and
Romance including New York Times Bestselling authors J.Lynn/Jennifer
Armentrout, Molly McAdams, Sophie Jordan, and Carrie Ryan.

NOTE: These stories are works of fiction. If you want to know about our first times, you'll have to buy us a pet monkey first.

Excerpt from Grind

“I thought I’d find you here.”

I
stiffen at the voice, certain that my need for her has pushed me over the edge
into aural hallucinations.But when I turn
to look over my shoulder, there she is.She’s in a bright red ski jacket and beanie that do amazing things for
her jet-black hair and dark, Native American complexion.

She’s
beautiful, so beautiful, and for long seconds I can do nothing but stare at
her.

“Dyani.”

“Gage.”She smirks at me, but I can see the temper
simmering in her eyes.But then, it’s
always been like that.No matter what
expression she plasters on her face, I’ve always been able to tell how she
really feels by staring into her jet-black gaze.

“What
are you doing here?”I scramble up from
the boulder where I’ve been sitting.

“I
think that’s my line, isn’t it?”She
crosses the area between us, her well-worn boots crunching on the snow.“I looked for you in town.Thought you’d be celebrating your first big
win.”

“How’d
you know?”

She
looks at me like I’m crazy, and maybe I am.Right now I can’t say anything for certain except that seeing her again
has turned me inside out.“I was there.”

“You
were?”

“You thought
you would come back to compete in Taos and I wouldn’t be there?”She
shakes her head like she’s disappointed in me.Or worse, like she doesn’t know me anymore.Which I can understand.Most days, I don’t even know myself.“Where else would I be, Gage?”

“I
didn’t think—“

“That’s
the problem, isn’t it?You never
think!”She’s in my face now, and even
the appearance of tranquility is gone.Her eyes are blazing, her cheeks flushed pink and her breathing—her
breathing is all over the place.And I
am going to burn in hell because, even though it’s been three years since I
walked away, all I can think about is touching her rapidly rising and falling
breasts.

I
want to pull her into my arms, to kiss her and hold her and lick her and touch
her until the last three years disappear.Until everything disappears but her and me and how it feels when we’re
together.

“I’m
sorry.”

“You
should be.”

“I
am.So fucking sorry.I didn’t want to leave you—“

“Don’t.”She lays her gloved fingers on my lips, stops
me mid-sentence.Even after all this
time, sparks of electricity shoot through me at the touch.

“But—“

“Is
that why you never called?Why you
didn’t come see me when you got into town two days ago?Because you thought I was mad at you for
leaving?”

I
pull her hand away from my mouth, then squeeze it tightly in my own.“Aren’t you?”

“Why?You left because he would have killed you if
you stayed.Don’t you think I know
that?Don’t you think I’ve been grateful,
every day, that you got out?That you’re
alive?That you’re safe?That your father will never be able to hurt
you again?”

I
can’t take it anymore.Not being with
her has been killing me, and now that she’s here, in front of me, all I want is
to feel her against me one more
time.

Reaching out, I pull Dyani into my
arms.Her wicked, wonderful body curls
against me like it’s been three minutes instead of three years, and she holds
me at least as tightly as I’m holding her.

“I missed you,” I tell her, my face
buried in her long, silky hair.She
still smells like ginger and snow and freshly cut pine trees.The scent, combined with the sweet relief of
holding her again, nearly brings me to my knees.“I missed you so much.”

“I missed you, too.”

She presses kisses—soft as the
snowflakes that are even now coming down around us-- to my jaw, my eyes, my
chapped and burning lips.It feels so
good—she feels so good—that when she
starts to step away, I can’t let her go.Instead, I lock her to me and slowly, oh so slowly, lower my mouth to
hers.

Part of me expects her to reject me
even now.To fight my kiss and all the
memories burning between us. God knows I
deserve it. But she doesn’t.Not even close.

Instead, her arms lock around my neck
and she presses herself even more tightly against me.And then we’re kissing, kissing, kissing, and
it’s just like it always was—flash and fire and pleasure so extreme it’s like a
kind of pain.

I run my tongue over her lips,
desperate to taste her again.Even more
desperate to be inside her any way that I can.She opens right away, and then I’m pulling her lower lip between my
teeth, nibbling on it in the way that used to drive her crazy.

She moans, her fingers clenching in
the blonde hair peeking out the bottom of my own beanie.I dart inside her then, my tongue stroking
over and around and under her own.She
tastes like she smells, like fresh, clean powder and sharply sweet ginger.I want more, so much more.I want everything.

Monday, February 24, 2014

Hi Everyone :) I am so, so excited about this week. Today, Drive Me Crazy, the second book in my Shaken Dirty rocker series releases!!! Thanks so much for all of you who have already bought it-- I really, really appreciate it and hope you like it! If you haven't, and you want to check it out, you can do that at Amazon or Barnes and Noble or iTunes. And then tomorrow, I am THRILLED to announce that 50 First Times is coming out-- the new adult anthology I'm in with Julie Cross, J. Lynn, Molly McAdams and a bunch of other amazing writers. You can check it out at Amazon, Barnes and Noble or iTunes as well!

I've got to go teach now, but I'll be putting up an excerpt for Drive Me Crazy later and then one from Grind (my short story in the anthology) tomorrow. So stop back and check them out!

Saturday, February 8, 2014

Hi Everyone,
Hope you guys had a great week! Mine was busy, but good-- lots of writing done-- so I'm happy :) Today I'm putting up another excerpt from Drive Me Crazy, the second book in my Shaken Dirty rocker series. And in case I haven't mentioned it before, can I tell you how much fun I had writing Quinn and Elise? They made me laugh every day :) Hope you like them, too! And remember, my publisher is doing a special promotion, so you can get Drive Me Crazy for $.99 at both Amazon and Barnes and Noble! Check it out :)Blurb:

His rival’s in his bed, and this rocker is ready to play.Former rivals Quinn Bradford and Elise McKinney are not
friends, at least not anymore. As teens, all they cared about was
psyching each other out before concerts. But when Quinn—now the
keyboardist for Shaken Dirty, the hottest rock band on the scene—returns
to his hometown and hears about the car accident that shattered Elise’s
career, he’s determined to make things right.
Elise wants nothing
to do with an arrogant rock star, despite how bad she so clearly wants
him, so Quinn kidnaps the stubborn little piano player and whisks her
back to his mansion. A little seduction might be just the thing to keep
Elise under his care…and in his bed. But amid pranks both childish and very adult, their past comes rearing back to haunt them. And it might be more than either of them can forget.

Excerpt:

Moving
slowly so that she had plenty of time to stop him, he wrapped a hand around the
back of her neck and pulled her gently toward him. Her eyes widened, her breath
caught in her throat, but she didn’t protest. Didn’t pull away. So he kept
tugging her closer, kept leaning forward himself until his face was only an
inch or so from hers.

Then
he paused, waited. Watched. Her broken breath was a warm caress on his face,
her pulse a wild thing under the deliberately soft clasp of his fingers. He
knew she was waiting for him to make the next move, for him to kiss her, but on
this he wanted no misunderstanding. Not when her eyes were wide and her chest
was rising and falling rapidly. Not when she looked terrified and confused and
exhilarated all at once.

No,
this kiss, their first kiss in a decade, would have to come from her.

So
even though his body was on fire, even though he ached to pull her against him
and take everything he wanted—everything she had to give—he waited. And waited.
And waited. Until his every nerve was screaming, his every cell straining
toward her with an intensity he couldn’t control.

He
was about to say to hell with it and pull her to him, when Elise finally made
the move he was waiting for. Leaning forward, she brushed her lips—her sweet,
hot, gorgeous lips—softly against his. Once, twice, a third time. Then she
started to pull away.

But
he was having no part of that. He wanted more, needed more. From the moment
he’d first set eyes on her again in that hospital bed, he’d craved her. Dreamed her[af1][TD2].
Now that she was here, in his kitchen and his arms, there was no way he was
letting her go without a proper taste.

This
time, he was the one who closed the distance between them. He was the one who
brought his mouth to hers. And he was the one who kissed her, really kissed
her, for the first time in a decade.

It
was even better than he remembered.

Her
lips parted on a moan, and he swept inside—to explore and taste and feel. She
was hot and sweet and so responsive that he couldn’t help the answering groan
that welled up in his own throat as he deepened the kiss.

He’d
been right. She still tasted like strawberries, but with a rich overlay of
sweet and salty caramel that was new. It was a flavor he was rapidly becoming
addicted to. One he wanted to taste again and again and again.

He
stroked his tongue along the roof of her mouth, brushed it over the side of one
cheek and then the other. Swept it between her teeth and her upper lip, pausing
to play with her sensitive frenulum for just a moment.

She
gasped, the fingers of her uninjured hand coming up to clutch at his shirt even
as her tongue came forward to meet his own.

His
hand tightened on her neck at the first whisper of her tongue against his. He
pulled her closer, pulled her into him until her breasts were against his chest
and her mouth was completely open, completely vulnerable, to him.

And
then he took her, took everything she was offering, everything she had to give.
Gave her everything he could in return.

He
was ravenous as he plundered her, tangling his tongue with hers. Licking at her
lips, the corners of her mouth, the insides of her teeth. He wanted to explore
every part of her, to re-learn her, to figure out everything he’d missed since
he’d walked out. To memorize her so that he would remember this even after she
left again.

He
pulled her closer, wrapped his free arm around her back and plastered her body
to his. She gasped, moaned, and he wanted more. Always more. Just like when
they’d been kids.

But
they weren’t kids anymore, hadn’t been for a long time. It was that thought, more
than any other, that brought him back. That had him pulling away from Elise
when all he really wanted to do was sink into her.

She
had real problems, problems that wouldn’t be fixed by a kiss or a quick tumble
onto the closest flat surface. And that was all he could offer her. All he’d
ever been able to offer her. It hadn’t been enough when they were seventeen and
it sure as shit wasn’t enough now.

He
untangled her fingers from his shirt, then gently dropped her hand back into
her lap before standing up. He didn’t want to look at her, didn’t want to see
the accusation in her eyes for so blatantly taking advantage of her when she
was injured and medicated and vulnerable.

But
in the end, he couldn’t not look, his eyes seeking and finding hers like they
were meant to be. And what he saw there nearly brought him to his knees all
over again. Passion, not accusation. Need, not mistrust.

Her
eyes were heavy-lidded, dreamy. Her cheeks flushed, her nipples hard little
points pressing against the sheer fabric of the blouse Jamison had bought for
her to wear home. And her lips. Those damn lips that had haunted his dreams for
years after he’d walked away from her, were red and swollen and so tempting it
took every ounce of willpower he had not to bend down and take another bite. One
that would only end when they were in bed and he was inside her.

That
last was the thought he needed to get him moving away from her as fast as his
hard, aching body would carry him. He’d made love to her and left her once,
when he’d been young and stubborn and too stupid to understand how doing so
would shatter them both.